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International Easter celebration

This past weekend marked the first major holiday that Chelsea and I have been here for – unless you count St. Patrick’s day – or at least the first recognized bank holiday. What does that mean? Well, it means that we got a four day weekend. Both Good Friday and Easter Monday were official days off at work around the country, and we only went in to take care of those precious cells that can’t feed themselves. Unfortunately, we were both a bit under the weather with our first sickness in the old world, and didn’t get a chance to do much. Thankfully though, we weren’t too sick to enjoy some sunshine and the company of new friends.

My labmate Andrea (striped sweater) was a little sad that he couldn’t spend the Easter holiday with family back home in Italy, so he did the next best thing: host a nice celebration for friends here in Oxford. The theme of the party was an international pot luck, where each person was responsible for bringing a dish from their native country.

As I’m sure you can see above, the potluck was a roaring success, we had more than enough food to go around, which I’m told is standard at any Italian party. So what did Chelsea and I bring that was “American”? Well, we certainly did not bring cheeseburgers. Although truthfully, that is what popped into both of our heads first as being an “American” food. How sad. We also though of New York cheesecake, apple pie, and buffalo wings, but decided to go with a Waldorf salad and homemade jalapeno poppers instead. Both were a big hit, especially the poppers which are essentially jalapeno’s stuffed with cream cheese and cheddar and wrapped in bacon.

Above, Chelsea and some of my lab mates are enjoying the food and the rarely seen sunshine. In retrospect, my post about spring arriving was probably a little early, but the weather cooperated for our festivities.

Our feast was even complete with a good luck “Easter egg” hidden inside a cake. It is said that the person who finds the egg will have good luck for the next year, and is also responsible for bringing the cake to the party the following year.

Although mostly we caught up on sleep, we managed to have a fun time this weekend, and hope everyone else did too.